The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

The first, the Technical Sub-Committee, chaired by Judge Michael Hansson of
Norway, was charged with the examination of the legal aspects of emigration. Each
country would be asked to supply the particulars of their immigration laws and policies,
an estimate of the number of refugees that would be allowed entry and the specifics
regarding any required documentation. The panel would report their findings to the
general conference. The Hansson Committee would be composed of delegates from the
United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, The Netherlands and Switzerland,
assisted by Sir Neill Malcolm; nations that had already expressed their resistance to
accepting and subsidizing additional involuntary émigrés. The response of this
committee’s membership to its appointed task was “far from enthusiastic” marked by
poor attendance at its initial meeting. In fact, by the time of the fourth public session
Chairman Hansson, frustrated by the panel’s lack of interest, was forced to ask the
delegations “to be good enough to send representatives to the second meeting of the Sub-
Committee.” As will be noted later by the Chief Concierge of the Hotel Royal the
opportunities for entertainment and recreation in the vicinity of Evian and Lake Geneva
proved too difficult to resist. 3
The second working group, the Sub-Committee on the Reception of Those
Concerned with the Relief of Political Refugees from Germany (including Austria),
3 Adler-Rudel, “Evian Conference,” 251-252. Judge Michael Hansson assumed the office of President
of the Nansen Office during January 1936 and directed the International Commission for the Assistance of
Spanish Child Refugees during the Spanish Civil War. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace on
behalf of the Nansen Office on December 10, 1938. The Norwegian jurist declared that the “biggest social
question of our time” was the refugee problem and warned that five million Jews were at risk of becoming
homeless and stateless and called for international loans to assist all refugees. “Suggest Loan,” The
Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY), December 18, 1938, 7 available from
http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%2010/Kingston%20NY%20Daily%20Freeman/Kingston%20NY%20
Daily%20Freeman%201939%20Grayscale/Kingston%20NY%20Daily%20Freeman%201939%20b%20Gr
ayscale%20-%200126.pdf; Internet; accessed August 7, 2010.
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